Woman gives birth to her own twin granddaughters

By: Shifra Unger
(Scroll down for video) A woman became the mother and the grandmother of twin girls after giving birth this week, according to hospital officials in Iowa.

Twin babies Hadlee and Hallee Larkin may have a harder time than most babies in the decision of how to call their grandmother.

Susie Kozisek, an Iowa mother of four, gave birth to twins, who are also her own granddaughters, after she acted as a gestational carrier of her daughter, Ashley Larkin. Kozisek has four children of her own, including Larkin, who are all between 20 and 40-years-old.

Larkin has pulmonary hypertension and cannot get pregnant, so Kozisek, 53, decided to carry the babies instead of her daughter. She was also the gestational carrier for her older daughter, Harper.

Gestational carrier volunteers offer to carry a baby for other women who cannot get pregnant. The eggs and sperm are collected from the prospective parents and then artificially put together through in vitro fertilization.
The resulting embryo is implanted in the uterus of the carrier.

“I heard about the procedure at a talk and decided to check the possibility that I do this for them so they could have their own children if they wanted to,” Kozisek said.

Twins embryos were kept in storage at the Mayo Clinic since 2010, and implanted in the uterus of Kozisek in November 2012.

“It’s rare that a mother comes forward to be the gestational carrier for their own child. Kozisek was also at the back-end of the spectrum for pregnancy,” Dr. Jani Jensen of the Mayo Clinic said. “Kozisek was a good candidate as she already had been successful in carrying full term pregnancies and was in excellent health,” Jensen also said.